____________________________________________________________________________________________ In this stirring tale, McBride evokes a sense of place with lush depictions of birch stands and daisy fields along with a soundtrack of Tchaikovsky and folk tunes, creating a backdrop for Vera’s tender and chaste friendship with Anton. It’s an evocative portrait of a vanishing way of life.  –Publisher’s Weekly Vera and Anton, a soon-to-be medical student and aspiring author, topple into a heady, intense relationship that blooms over long, lush days. With deep empathy and a light spiritual touch, The White Deer explores the complexity of human relations to others, power, and the past.  –Foreword Reviews The White Deer is captivating in both style and structure. The entire book takes place over the course of a single summer, but author Regina McBride holds a magnifying glass to each day, each hour, each passing emotion and bodily sensation, thereby expanding the sense of time — and the spaciousness of Vera’s inner world — on the page.    –Washington Independent Review of Books The White Deer delivers an insightful depiction of Chekhov in a beautifully evocative story, with sensory details that create a sense of nostalgia for a way of life that’s outliving itself. This saga of a grand estate deteriorating through poor management, careless spending, and impractical ideas reads like a Russian novel, and the cast of characters belong there—or in a Chekhov play. Vera’s mother’s connection to Siberian magic adds a mysterious element to the story. This rich, fulfilling book will appeal to literature-lovers and any reader who wants to be enchanted back to a long-lost era.  –Historical Novel Society Regina McBride’s new book evokes a loving nostalgia for a place we’ve never known - Chekhov’s Russia. Set in the summer of young Anton’s twentieth year, the novel centers on a young woman whose family is losing financial control of their estate - an estate famous for its orchards. Anton is the guest of a neighboring doctor, and the two young people become entwined in a romantic friendship - une amitiée  amoureuse. McBride’s story comes at Chekhov’s from the side, presenting us not only with the family’s eccentric and complicated history, but the vision of the author himself, as a character in the work. A beautiful and eloquent rendering of a place and time we somehow feel is ours. -Roxana Robinson Author of Leaving NYT Editors’ Choice McBride has always been a gifted and lyrical storyteller, but never more so than in this gorgeously written novel of 19th century Ukraine and Russia, in which she brings a young Anton Chekhov to life. The story will remain with you long after you’ve turned the final page. Superb. -Gabriel Byrne Author of Walking with Ghosts This gentle but profound novel takes you on a quietly magical journey through nineteenth century Ukraine, mixing the Chekhovian sensibility with contemporary spirit to create the effect of delightful immersion. -Lara Vapnyar Author of Divide Me by Zero This restrained and beautiful book utterly transported me to summer in Russia in the late 19th century: to a lovely old estate with a neglected peach orchard. McBride beautifully suggests how shards of the daily material of life can be picked up by an extraordinary writer and transformed into art. I never wanted to leave the enchanted, doomed world she conjured. -Rachel Pastan Author of We’re So Lucky to Live Here This transportive novel sweeps the reader up into a vivid, melancholic dream set on a nineteenth century Russian estate. Regina McBride creates her own Chekhovian tragi-comedy that delights as it captures a lost world frozen in time. The White Deer is a gripping must-read for anyone who loves literature and a love story gone awry. -Virginia Pye Author of Marriage and Other Monuments